Austin Tosses Spartans Past Lions to End Trip

Feb 22, 2009

DEMOREST, GA-The York College
baseball team closed out their stay at the 2009 Rawlings Southern
Classic in Atlanta, GA with a 3-1 win at Piedmont College on
Sunday. The Spartans, who started the trip 0-2, level their mark at
2-2 while the Lions fall to 5-5 for the campaign.
The victory was the 450th in the career of
Spartan head coach Paul Saikia.
The Spartans got on the board in the top of the
first as Rob Klinck (Stanhope, N.J./Lenape Valley
Regional) drew a leadoff walk, advanced to third on a
Kyle Cook (Pylesville, Md./Harford) single and
scored when left fielder Jared Moon committed an error on the
play.
The Green and White pushed the lead to 2-0 in
the fourth as Matt Monti (Easton, Pa./Easton)
singled to lead off the frame. He stole second, advanced to third
on a wild pitch and scored on a great piece of situational hitting
as Jim Meehan (Mastic, N.Y./Eastport-South Manor
Central) went the other way for an RBI ground out to
first.
Those two runs would be enough for senior
Matt Austin (Shrewsbury, Pa./Susquehannock) as the
right-hander cruised through the first five innings of play. The
Lions finally reached Austin for a run in the sixth inning. The
Lions got three consecutive singles to load the bases. Austin got a
6-4-3 double play to allow a run to score but he got out of the
inning without any further damage with a flyout to right, ending
the Lion threat and Austin’s day.
The Spartans added a big insurance run in the
ninth as Monti singled to lead off the inning. Sophomore
Joe Doyle (Stewartstown, Pa./Red Lion) followed
with a single on a hit-and-run as Monti moved to third. Meehan then
got Monti home as he fought off a pitch to ground out to the
pitcher as Piedmont’s Josh McEachin had just one play,
getting Meehan at first. Klinck followed Meehan with a single but
Doyle was gunned down at the plate ending the Spartan uprising.
Cook came into the game and nailed down the save
for the Spartans as he tossed a perfect ninth inning with two
strikeouts for his first save of the year. Freshman
KC Beshore (New Cumberland, Pa./Red Land)
relieved Austin and tossed two solid innings, allowing two hits
with a strikeout in his stint. Austin earned the win as he allowed
just one run as he scattered nine hits over his six innings of
work. Austin improves to 1-0 with the victory.
Alex Beebe took the loss for the Lions as he
allowed two runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and three walks
in six innings. He falls to 0-1 with the loss.
Offensively, Monti led the Spartans as he was
2-for-3 with two runs scored. Meehan drove in a pair of runs in
three at-bats while Klinck was 1-for-3 with a run scored.
Corey Lindsey, Jared Vermilya, Justin Vorherr,
and Brandon Hitch each had two hits for Piedmont. Vermilya scored
the lone run for the Lions while Lindsey and Zac Stein each had a
double for the game’s lone extra base hits.
The Spartans are now off until Sunday, March 1
when the Spartans travel to Myrtle Beach to play four days in the
sun of South Carolina. York faces Catholic University at 3:00 pm on
Sunday afternoon. York will play Catholic twice during the trip and
will also play Eastern University twice in the four days in Myrtle
Beach.